Harry's Creek, how we doing? Let's go, man. Let's go. It's so fun to be with. I love our church. I just got to tell you. I'm walking out there in the commons, and it's just a really sweet time to see you guys and hear what God's doing in your life and catch up with your stories. I know some of you are here for the first time, and we just want to say, welcome home. We're here every week. And so there's like this, I hope you have this feeling of like, wait, I can do this every week.

Like, yes, she's. some of you are here for the first time and we just want to say welcome home we're here every week and so there's like this i hope you have this feeling of like wait i can do this every week like yes you can

you know you absolutely can i want to start this memorial day weekend uh in this service by sharing

with you a conversation i had with my grandfather i was 25 years old and realizing that my time with him was limited and he had fought in World War II. And so I was just like, Gramps, can we talk about that? And he was like, sure, he's a really kind, God-fearing man. And we sat down and he began to tell him. I was like, what was it like? Because you're kind of like in the 40s. Like, how did you get somewhere, you know, like, what did that look like? What was travel like? And he had just married my grandmother. I mean, walked down the aisle, and then he is, he sent to war, where he was stationed on a ship, he was with the U.S. Navy, stationed in the middle of the ocean near Hawaii. And he was telling me about it. He's like,

well, there were these Japanese planes called kamikazis, and they would use their aircraft and their

person as a weapon, and they would fly into the ships. And so he was stationed with his best friend,

deployed with his closest friend. They were on the ship together. and he said, our job were we were gunmen.

And so there was this kind of giant cannon on the top of this boat, and we had to watch for

these planes. And he said, you know, one day I woke up to the sound of one of those planes

hitting the ship. And it threw my best friend overboard

where he swam until another ship could come and pick him up

where he lived for three months after that.

So it wasn't the plan, but all of a sudden he finds himself

on another vessel and that's where he lives.

And he's just telling me all of this,

walking me through the detail.

And I can't get my head around. I mean, Gramps, how old were you? He's like, I was,

I was 19. Well, I was 25. And, you know, I was playing Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis.

And he's fighting wars. I'm like, what in the world? And so I want to show you a picture

of my Gramps with some of his friends. There he is. And then here's the ship that he was

stationed on, the USS Helms. And here's a picture of a ship at the time that had been hit by one of those Japanese planes,

and you see the kind of the imprint on the side of that boat.

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